Four new reviews of ‘Have You Got Heart?’
I just tracked down four reviews of my album in which I get compared to Chris Martin, The Darkness, Ben Folds, Billy Joel and ACDC. They’re posted below for your enjoyment:
From Old Age Hipster:
Have You Got Heart? An interesting question for sure and one neatly answered by its originator Mr Leighfield through his debut album. See the heart beating at the very core of his recent album (neatly doubling here as the title of this post in case you were wondering) is one of pure rock.
Luckily, rather than just shut these voices out, Leighfield has let them flourish and used them to expand his singer songwriter template and created a sound as custom built for a nearby stadium as it is your favourite singer songwriter cafe. Kind of akin to Chris Martin fronting the Darkness.
Of course this should be more than enough to send you scurrying a loooong way away but dont because to be scared would be shutting yourself away from the intricate musicianship and interesting lyrics that underpin this whole operation.
A genuinely interesting album and one that I heartily suggest you check out by heading over to Leighfields page at Bandcamp.
From Pop Goes The Weevil:
Ever wondered what Coldplay might sound like if they abandoned their current ‘let’s be Bono’ mission and went off on an ACDC tangeant instead? Well in truth it probably sounds a lot like Luke Leighfield. Leighfield’s new album ‘have you got heart’ pulls of a tricky balancing across its length - wielding giddy stadium drums and wailing guitars on one hand whilst creating delicate piano led melodies on the other.
As bewildering as it might sound there’s a clever conundrum going on here - is he taking the impersonal mass appeal of wembley bound rockers into an infinitely more personal place? Or merely giving the singer songwriter a rocket up its preverbial? In reality its both and all told it sets expectations for Mr Double-L extremely high for the coming months.
From Heads Up:
Drawing as much influence from literate singer songwriters like Ben Folds as he does power rock, Leighfield has created a debut album (Have You Got Heart) that bewitches as much as it does suprise throughout its 10 tracks.
Rolling some stadium sized drums in alongside the electric guitars that twist themselves around Leighfield’s fluttering piano, the disparate elements somehow conjur some kind of alchemy to create an interesting bedrock for the bookish singer songwriter tales that sit atop them.
Well worth a listen.
From 2 Turntables and a Microphone:
Southampton-based Ulsterman Luke Leighfield plays a piano and has a knack of crafting everyman pop choruses. So far, so Ben Folds. Where Leighfield does pique the interest however is the way - unlike the aforementioned Folds - he does so whilst still retaining a sense of imtimacy to a set of songs whose sense of fun and sheer rock n roll glee could well undermime the whole thing.
The album “Have you got heart” is available now on Bandcamp (free download) and it’s well worth a listen - by turns sensitive and whimsical and cocky and carefree - it’s a genuinely unique listen in lots of ways - There arent many records arriving through my door as unafraid of their Billy Joel-y influences, but when presented with such conviction and enjoyment you just cant resist being swept along in the geek chic euphoria. It should be stated meanwhile that the attention to detail throughout however reassures us that there is a serious hand at work here and with songs like these - long may it continue to do so.
